Brighton

Road Trip ~ Utah or Bust

Day two of our small resort tours took us to Brighton.  It's located in Big Cottonwood Canyon just past Solitude Ski Resort.  We've been to Solitude several times but somehow never made it to Brighton so we were looking forward to this new skiing adventure.  The drive through the canyon is impressive and beautiful in its own right, but even more so when you first drive through the flat, monochromatic valley that is Salt Lake City to reach the canyon entrance.

One would think that skiing is skiing, and while the sport remains fairly constant, the resorts do not.  Each has their own character ranging from old-school to upscale.   Brighton had a nice vibe and was a fun place to ski ~ although their double black diamond runs were obsessed with steep, narrow, bumpy and trees.  We can handle three out of four but not all four together and got ourselves into some minor trouble on at least one occasion.  Some people just opt for parking lot skiing where it's flat and fairly safe.  Ha.  Ha.

The day was a lesson in joy despite circumstances.  We awoke to no hot water (the hotel's tank died), drove twice as far and paid three times more than our trip to Sundance, but we shrugged it off to enjoy the day.  We explored the mountain, laughed at our bravado-but-glad-to-be-safely-down a couple of ski runs, and made the most of the adventure.  Our reward was hot water from a newly installed tank when we arrived back at the hotel.  If any of you can relate, you know that this was a nice reward indeed after a day in the cold and snow.